Press Release: New research to be presented at HSRPP

The Health Services Research and Pharmacy Practice Conference (HSRPP) is taking place on the 10th and 11th April at the University of Nottingham and Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK) is delighted to showcase some new research that will be presented at the conference. All the papers presented are published in the prestigious International Journals of Pharmacy Practice (IJPP).

“Pharmacists’ perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to successful medicines management for people with dementia in primary care” was led by Mairead McGrattan at the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and was a collaborative work between QUB, the School of Pharmacy, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Centre for Public Health at QUB, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, the School of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, the Western Health and Social Care Trust and the Alzheimer’s Society Belfast.

This study was conducted as part of a larger ongoing project to develop an intervention to improve medicines management for people with dementia (PWD). The aim of this study was to explore community pharmacists’ views of medicines management in PWD, their approach to dispensing for these patients, and their perceptions of barriers and facilitators to successful medicines management for PWD.

Miss McGrattan said, “I am delighted to present this work at the HSRPP annual conference, which highlights the major role that community pharmacists have to play in supporting people with dementia to manage their medicines effectively.”

“The art of prioritising – people’s experiences of dealing with multiple medicines for multimorbidities” was led by Claire Anderson at the University of Nottingham and was a collaboration between the University of Nottingham, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester. This study set out to capture peoples’ experiences of ‘multimorbidity’ and the health service response; it showed that people tend to prioritise their conditions in order of what they think is the most important. This is often the condition that causes them most the problems and they then make their own decisions about the management of their conditions, often contrary to health professional advice, using dietary control or self-management rather than medicines where they feel it is more appropriate. Understanding how patients prioritise their conditions may help pharmacists better tailor their care and address complexities.

Professor Anderson said, “This was part of a larger study I did with colleagues from University of Manchester and University of Oxford exploring peoples experiences of managing multiple health conditions. Medicines form a large part of that management. Narrative interviews were conducted with 38 people who were living with multiple health conditions. One of the major themes was that people prioritised their conditions one of the main was according to whether they could manage them with treatment for example medicines or self-management for example diet and exercise. For example, Anne considered her epilepsy to be the more serious condition and her asthma as a mere irritation. Mohammed was pleased that he could mainly control his diabetes through diet rather than medicines.”

“The role of community pharmacists in CVD prevention; a UK study to establish their views” was led by Aliki Peletidi at the University of Kingston. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death both in Europe and worldwide; in 2014 it was the second main cause of death (27% of deaths) in the UK. With Community Pharmacists being one of the most accessible healthcare professionals, they can have a key role in both the primary and secondary prevention of CVD. The study concluded there is evidence of pharmacists’ positive potential role in CVD prevention, however, there are significant challenges that need to be overcome, such as achieving a multidisciplinary approach through working with other health care providers, providing training to further develop Community Pharmacists’ skills and the provision of a sustainable funding model.

Ms Peletidi and Professor Reem Kayyali said, “This study identified UK pharmacists’ perspectives on their role in CVD prevention. There is evidence of pharmacists’ positive potential role in CVD prevention based on their accessibility to the public. The challenges that lie ahead include enhancement of a deeper relationship with other HCPs to achieve a multidisciplinary approach, provision of training that develops pharmacists’ communication skills and development of a sustainable funding model for pharmacists. However, UK pharmacists’ current role in CVD prevention still gives a model that can be applied in different countries.”

Dr Rachel Joynes, Trust Director at PRUK said: “We are delighted that HSRPP is able to provide a platform for researchers to present their findings, but also a forum for discussion on the impact of such work as we look to drive changes in policy and practice. Through this year’s conference we are proud to showcase research from all over the world and I look forward to hearing about cutting edge Pharmacy and Health Services research.”

PRUK is the principle funder of pharmacy research in the UK. Founded as a result of a merger in 2012 of two previous research funding charities, PRUK has a broad programme of research in place. PRUK funds both research projects and individual bursaries to improve skills across the pharmacy sector. Registered charity number 1148335.